Boy, that was a long way to get there. Thank you to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. First of all, let me address the first part. If we don’t take these actions, trying to have motions that encourage the federal government to move on things, we wouldn’t have the HST off home builds, for instance. We wouldn’t have the child care program that we have now in the province of Ontario. By encouraging as a united force here in the Ontario Legislature, we may just get the break that Ontarians are looking for, and that’s the carbon tax off their home heating fuels.

I love this member, but when he was a long-time member of the New Democratic Party, they voted in favour of the carbon taxes that are driving up the price of fuel in his home communities. I’ve met a lot of those people in Algoma–Manitoulin. They drive big trucks. That’s what they drive there, and they are getting killed at the pumps—not because of our party; we’re reducing the price of gasoline. The federal party, the NDP and the Liberals are driving up the cost—

Interjections.

When we became the government of Ontario, we brought forward the comprehensive electricity plan, which reduced the cost of electricity by 15% to 17% every year. It has brought stability to our province. It has brought multi-billion dollar investments to our province.

I was the Minister of Economic Development prior to our Minister of Economic Development doing such a great job in that role, and the biggest thing we were hearing was, “You have to fix the Liberal hydro mess.” And we have done that. As a result, we’re seeing those multi-billion dollar investments in Windsor, in Loyalist township, in St. Thomas, in Algoma—the steelmaking facility is moving to an electric arc furnace because of the stability that we brought to the energy sector.

It’s time for that member to get on board. Join us. We’re getting—

Interjections.

Congratulations to the member opposite on his Peterborough Petes winning the OHL Championship last week.

As usual, the member is correct. I know from my time as a critic on that side, Ontarians felt helpless as they watched their hydro bills just skyrocket on a monthly basis.

Then, in 2018, we took office. We began taking steps to reduce the costs and empower customers to lower their costs. We implemented the Ontario Electricity Rebate, the OER, which is lowering the cost of electricity by 12%. We introduced more customer choice. We gave customers the power to take control of their hydro bills with the Green Button standard being implemented right across, possibly saving customers up to 18%. Electricity customers also will soon have the right, and they do in some jurisdictions, to have an ultra-low overnight rate. I’m going to have more to say about the Peak Perks program coming up in my supplementary.

Interjections.

Thanks to the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke. I appreciate it.

Speaker, he is quite correct: We’ve been hard at work putting families back in charge of their energy bills since we formed the government back in 2018. We started by introducing customer choice on electricity plans, allowing Ontarians to choose a price plan that makes sense for them—either a time-of-use or tiered rate. We also introduced the Green Button program, which is being rolled out right across Ontario as we speak, and will be in full implementation in November.

Now we’ve taken the next step. Last week, down at Toronto Hydro, I had the opportunity to inform the public about our ultra-low overnight electricity rate, which, starting on May 1, customers in the member’s own riding in Renfrew and in Toronto and London and Centre Wellington and Wasaga—I’m sure it was a great weekend at the beach up there, Mr. Speaker. They can opt in on this new plan, the ultra-low overnight rate, that’s going to be available province-wide in the coming months.

Unlike the former Liberal government, which sold clean, night-time power to neighbouring jurisdictions, many times at a loss, our government is coming up with innovative ways to use that power and shift demand in the province in the overnight period, which will make our grid more efficient, saving our electricity grid up to $5.7 million which, at the end of the day, isn’t just going to save those folks who adopt the ultra-low overnight rate, it’s going to save every electricity customer in the province money on their bill.